I recently came across this survey undertaken by Win New Customers on the freshbusinessthinking.com site. I was stunned by the responses from UK small businesses (I’m guessing small businesses in other countries aren’t much different). Of the participants…
- 83% said they needed more telephone sales skills to grow their business.
- 73% said they needed more face-to-face selling skills.
- 61% had a sales budget under £250.
They then go on to say that “whilst there was a whole host of information on sales and marketing on the Internet and available at free seminars, etc. this information tended to focus on the why and what of sales and marketing activity rather than showing them how to do it”.
This suggests to me that…
a) there is a vast un-tapped opportunity to provide basic sales training for small businesses
b) there also a great opportunity for sales agents and reps who can fill the gap highlighted by this survey.